8th Army 1/48 Grant from Blitzkrieg and Battle Honors Infantry!

Well, the M3 Grant from Blitzkrieg Miniatures arrived and now here it is, painted. What a great looking tank, so characterful and evocative of the Western Desert, isn't it?

This example is in 1/48 scale and like all of the Blitzkrieg models in my collection, it was composed of very few parts, and assembly was easy. I did, however, split the hatch into its component halves so I could assemble the model with a crewman. He's attached with a small rare-earth magnet so he can be removed.

Painting was quite straightforward - the model was basecoated with AK Light Earth and after much dithering, I decided on a camo scheme... this was painted in with Vallejo German Uniform and lightened up considerably with GW Death World Forest. There's no decals of course so I painted in the fender insignia for the Royal Scots Greys of 22 Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division (the famed "Desert Rats"). The jerboa looks faintly recognizable I think. The tac sign and fender shields are GW Mephiston Red with Evil Suns Scarlet highlight.

I did cheat a bit by using decals from the decal folder for the tank's serial number on the hull.

Jerboa and "40" marking on rear fenders too. The model's camo and markings are based on Glen Porter's excellent build of a Mirage 1/72 M3 Grant.

As this is an 8th Army vehicle I felt compelled to add copious stowage, including some handy tarpaulins fastened to the sand shields. These are seen on lots of desert vehicles as the crew used to stake them out for shade. There's also a few odd bits of other stowage added here and there - jerry cans, tarps, packs, that sort of thing. The stowage is mostly from Value Gear but some of it is from Tamiya's 1/48 kit.

I think the model looks pretty good accompanied by some Perry infantry.

And speaking of infantry... here's some more, but metal this time. These are some ancient Battle Honors "25mm" models I've had for ages - they came to me probably 15 or more years ago in the same trade as the Afrika Korps desert armour. I just tuned up the paint a bit and based them to match my Perry stuff.

Boys AT rifle team.

A couple of section leaders with Thompson SMGs fitted with drum mags.

A couple riflemen.

3" mortar and crew.

Boys AT rifleman and Bren gunner on the move.

Size comparison with Perry Miniatures 8th Army dude - not bad. I quite liked the old Battle Honors WW2 ranges (pretty much my entire Waffen-SS force is from BH) as they were quite characterful. Unfortunately the range was acquired by Gaddis Gaming and the prices were cranked through the roof (now $30USD for 10 models)... presumably the profits are NOT being used to maintain the Gaddis website, which really is awful. Too bad as the BH models were cool and I'd buy some more (maybe command models?) but probably not at $3USD apiece. 
 

In any event, tally ho!

Tamiya 1/48 Daimler Scout Car "Harry" (Dieppe)

After having tuned up the Churchills, I wanted to knock off another vehicle for the ongoing Dieppe project, in time for a potential game to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the raid. 

I found the perfect candidate in the form of this 1/48 Daimler Scout Car from Tamiya. According to "Dieppe Through the Lens", a total of seven Daimler S/C MkIIs went ashore in the raid, each towed by a Churchill tank. They were towed with a single steel cable connecting their right front bumper to a hitch on the rear of the tank. The idea was that the tank would tow the Scout Car across the chert beach and the pin connecting the cable would be pulled once the car crossed the seawall. Of course, like most plans at Dieppe, this didn't generally happen - only one Scout Car ("Hector") actually made it over the seawall.

 

I've painted "Harry" here, built pretty much stock out of the box, but with the special Dieppe bumpers added from plasticard. Again, "Through the Lens" came to the rescue with lots of detail shots of the wrecked Scout Cars on the beach.

Insignia was lettered by hand.

Crew is from the Tamiya box as well, and I left them both removeable as it's pretty much certain the Scout Car will be wrecked, no matter what happens in the game. They're just too lightly armoured.

Final shot is a portrait alongside "Bob", a Churchill MkIII. That's my mistake, of course, as Harry was towed in by "Bluebell", another Churchill MkIII. Harry's story on the day was fairly typical - the S/C was crewed by Cpl Butler and Tpr Graham, and bogged down under tow partway up the beach. For about an hour, Bluebell and Harry tried to negotiate the loose chert, but wheelspin only succeeded in digging Harry in deeper. Photos show it buried in the chert up past its axles.

Should be a fun addition to the commemorative game next month!

 

Blitzkrieg Miniatures 1/48 Stuart Honey

Despite all appearances to the contrary, efforts continue on the Western Desert project. The British infantry platoon is about 2/3 done at this point, one rifleman having been lost in an unfortunate encounter with my Dyson "Animal" vacuum cleaner (NOTE: Perry Miniatures plastic models will always come off second-best against a Dyson). But I've gotten this Stuart Honey finished at least.

 

The model is from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, in correct 1/48 scale. As with the other Blitzkrieg models I've encountered, there's a minimum of assembly required. Tracks and hull are one piece, turret and guns make up the other components. Assembly takes literally seconds. Another thing I like about these models is that there's often stowage molded right in.

One thing with resin, though, is that you never get decals with the kits. In this case, I just used the "MKI eyeball" and freehanded the markings. Turned out OK, likely because I pick mostly "1s" and "7s" for my serial numbers. There is sometimes a method to my madness.

The 7th Armoured Division jerboa ("desert rat") insignia was a different matter. I hope it's somewhat recognizable there on the fender. The Caunter camouflage was too tempting not to try. Base colour is AK Light Earth and the upper blue is GW Celestra Grey with the tiniest ort of Thunderhawk Blue added to it. 

Of course the model was then washed with Agrax Earthshade (please GW never mess with Agrax Earthshade!!) and re-highlighted, then chips were added with a sponge. Done!

I love painting these Western Desert vehicles as you can kind of go to town on the weathering. Any photos you see of these tanks, they're beaten up to within an inch of their lives, but you know that for all the abuse their exteriors get, the crews were hyper-vigilant about mechanical maintenance and repairs. After all, this was their home in the trackless desert and if your home breaks down, you're screwed.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post that infantry platoon next.

"Now THIS is podracing!" - Challenge Submission #4

 After recently watching Episode 5 of 'The Book of Boba Fett' TV show, I put aside the project I was working on and dug out an unbuilt, 1/48 scale diecast N1 Naboo Starfighter, from 'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'. I built it stock. (I also traded with Conscript FrederickC for an all-plastic snapfast kit, to eventually turn into The Mandalorian's rat rod version of the ship, seen in that episode.)

The pilot figure in the diecast kit is little Ani Skywalker, a 9-year-old kid. It looked somewhat blob-like to me, but after black priming and zenithal highlighting, it turned out to have a fair amount of detail. After some GW washes, I did some detailing and blending with artists' oils.

R2-D2 rides in the astromech slot behind the cockpit; after black priming I sprayed his head with Tamiya aluminum paint from a can. Details and carbon scoring were done with oils.

The cockpit had some details, mostly not screen accurate, which I just picked out with acrylics and washes, after gray priming.

The N1 starfighter is a  mostly metal kit, with either yellow enamel already painted on, or polished metal parts, and a clear canopy. I screwed it together with the provided screws, setting them into place with locktite fluid, and covering the screw heads with the provided metal caps. I added some of the 22-year-old decals, which fortunately did not disintegrate after liberal use of decal set and solvent solutions.

At some point I will have to go back and add some weathering to this ship. Blaster residue, exhaust stains, and such.

Challenge Submission #14 - Siberian Veterans and Soviet BA-10 Armoured Car

 

More Soviet infantry were completed for the Challenge, specifically 32 Siberian Veterans from the Warlord Games boxed set of the same name. The set consists of four identical sprues of multipose miniatures, enough to build 32 soldiers, plus two metal figures. (I diverted two of the plastic figures, and some of the Mosin-Nagant rifles to my Winter Soviets to beef up the numbers.) You also get a selection of metal heads and arms to add further variety to the figures, such as captured weapons, bandaged heads or hands, Eastern facial features, etc. 

These were all painted in my usual style, starting with a black primer. All the basic colours were painted using Vallejo acrylics, followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. The end result is a platoon of three 9 man sections each with two submachine guns, a mix of Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines,  a DP-28 light machine gun team, one Tokarev semi-automatic rifle, plus some hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, and a captured Panzerfaust, all led by an officer with a pistol. Add to that a sniper team, a soldier dragging a Maxim machine gun, and a Commissar with a speaking trumpet. 

 

Siberian Veterans defending the approaches to Moscow

Bandaged heads and hands

Bandaged hands and captured Panzerfaust

Captured MP40, Molotov cocktail, and bandaged heads

Sniper team with scoped Moisin-Nagant rifle

Machine-gunner pulling a Maxim and an officer with a pistol

"The man with the rifle shoots, the man without the rifle follows...."

Next we have a Soviet BA-10 heavy armoured car which is a 1/48 model by Uni-Model, another Ukrainian company stocked by my local hobby store. Like the Ace Model kits that I built earlier, these are very detailed and contain a lot of parts that I probably could have left out given that I am building something for the wargames table. The parts lack locating pins and holes to correctly align them, and the diagrams didn't always give a good representation of exactly where things were to be positioned. (One diagram actually had all the part numbers printed backwards. 😱) I also found the plastic to be a bit fragile, and a few pieces broke when trying to carefully cut them from the sprue. In the end I left off the optional tracks from the rear wheels and some of the tiny etched brass parts, and replaced the headlights and the steps outside the side doors with something more robust than provided by the model kit. 

Despite all the trials and tribulations, I eventually got it all together. It was primed black using an airbrush and then painted Russian green using acrylic paint. Highlights and decals were applied, and then the entire vehicle was given a wash of AK Interactive Dust. (In case anyone is wondering what 'А. Невский' means, it is for Alexander Nevsky, a medieval military leader who defeated the Teutonic Knights in 1242.)

 

The headlights were made from round push pins filed flat on one side

А. Невский on the side, just above the rear wheels

The plastic piece to support the step on the side was replaced with florist wire

 There is still another batch of Soviet Infantry in Winter uniforms coming down the pipe. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading.

Challenge Submission #12 - Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group and T34/76

 

Having completed all my PSC Soviet troops in Summer uniform, it was time to move to those dressed for colder weather in front of the gates to Moscow. I didn't get a huge number of miniatures completed this week as I have been experimenting with different materials to get a 'Winter look' to not only the bases, but the tank as well.

First up is a boxed set of Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group sold by Warlord Games. It consists of a Soviet HQ of two officers, a radioman, and a medic tending a wounded soldier, a Soviet Maxim MMG team, and a Soviet 82mm medium mortar team, all dressed for the cold in a variety of greatcoats, fur hats, felt  winter boots, etc. Each of these groups can be purchased separately, but you save $5 by getting the 'package deal'.

All of the minis were painted using Vallejo acrylics followed by the application of the Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. This is pretty much what I have done up to this point with the Summer Soviets. I used AK Diorama products 'Snow' and 'Snow Sprinkles' on the bases to give them that frosty look.

 

Soviet Army (Winter) Support Group

Soviet HQ (Winter)

Soviet Maxim MMG and 82mm Medium Mortar teams (Winter)

 The second item is a 1/48 scale Tamiya T34/76 in Winter camouflage. The kit was very easy to assemble, even though a lot of the track comes as individual links. The chassis is made of metal, so it actually has some weight to it. 

Once assembled, the tank was primed dark brown, and then painted olive green using Tamiya acrylic paint. Since I already have four T34/76s in various shades of green, I wanted to put this one in Winter colours to go along with my Winter Soviet infantry. I first applied AK Chipping Medium to all the areas that I thought would get a lot of wear and allowed it to dry thoroughly. I then applied a heavily diluted coat of white acrylic paint to give it the appearance of whitewash that was starting to wear off. Once that was completely dry, I used water and a brush to remove the chipping medium to reveal the olive paint underneath. Finally I applied AK Interactive Splattereffects 'Wet Mud' to the tracks and underside to make it look like it had been driven during the Rasputitsa. I may decide to add more 'Wet Mud' to the road wheels, but I am calling it done for now.

 

 This is my first foray into Winter figures, and I am happy with the results. Now that I have the method worked out, I will be ramping up production to meet the quotas of Stalin's latest five-year plan.